Incarnate (5 page)

There was a thick moment of silence while Seth hesitated. She knew it was entirely possible for Seth to demand to know if Justin had any plans for inappropriately touching his daughter. Or worse.

Then Seth’s expression relaxed. His lips almost—almost—softened into a smile. “No. You've answered my questions.” He nodded and shifted his eyes to Mackenzie. “He’ll do.”

Justin unwound visibly, his head sinking back against the couch with relief. And Mackenzie broke into a brilliant grin that caused an ache of emotion in Erin’s chest. The girl loved her father so much, and it meant so much to her that he approved.

Erin was feeling unusually pleased with Seth herself. She squeezed his knee, giving him a particularly warm look.

Seth just arched his eyebrows at her. Then his phone rang, and he pulled it out of his jacket pocket. “Excuse me,” he murmured, standing up with his back to them.

Erin leaned forward and gave Justin an understanding smile. “When did you decide you wanted to go to medical school?”

“A year or two ago. But I wasn’t really sure until…” His voice trailed off as Seth’s voice grew more distinct on the phone.

“No,” Seth said in a hard murmur. “That’s not acceptable. You know what happens to anyone who defies me.” It didn’t take long for Erin to realize that, although it sounded like Seth was trying to keep his voice low, he intended for it to be heard.

Justin tensed and shifted uncomfortably.

“No exceptions. You only get one chance. I don’t have a reputation for showing mercy to those who abuse my trust. Especially with things that are important to me.”

Erin inwardly rolled her eyes. Seth had done as well as could be expected. It wouldn’t be in his nature to leave Justin without at least an indirect warning about his behavior.

For a moment, Justin’s eyes reflected a glimmer of panic. To his credit, he responded with a smile to Mackenzie’s light touch on his arm.

“That’s my last word on the subject.” Seth clicked his phone off and turned back to Justin. “It was nice to meet you. Enjoy your evening.” He held out his hand for Justin to shake.

Justin and Mackenzie didn’t linger long after that.

When the teenagers had left, Erin gave Seth a speaking look, arching her eyebrows at him.

“What?” he asked, retaining a stoic expression although the corner of his mouth tilted up slightly. “Did I break any of the rules?”

Erin couldn’t help but laugh. “Next time, ‘no indirect threats’ is going to be one of the rules.”

Seth leaned over and gave her a kiss on the side of her mouth. “I don’t know how I ever allied myself with such a bossy female.”

Then he straightened up. “Anna! Stop hiding in the hallway and get in here.”

A giggling Anna appeared in the doorway. “That was the funniest thing ever. I can’t believe Dad got out-talked by a teenaged boy.”

Seth frowned. “That’s a clear distortion of the facts. No one out-talks me--except occasionally your mother. But I’ll let it go this time. We need to get ready to go.”

“Where are we going?” Anna asked, shooting a questioning look over to Erin.

Erin was as clueless as she was.

“We’re going out to dinner.” Seth appeared blissful ignorant of his wife and daughter’s confusion. “But you both need to change clothes. Wear something nice.”

“But, Seth, I thought we were going to stay in,” Erin began. She was exhausted and certainly had no desire to go out tonight.

“Who ever said that?” Seth demanded. He looked back and forth between Anna and Erin as if they were the ones who had lost their minds. “I’m hungry. Hurry up and go change.”

“But, Seth,” Erin tried again, more gently this time, “Anna might have had plans with her friends.”

“No,” Anna interrupted, looking at Seth with almost cautious excitement. “Nothing big. We can go out to eat, if Dad wants to. But I thought he would have wanted to camp out here until Mac gets back.”

“We’ve all got phones. She can call us if she needs us.” Seth was starting to look impatient. “Of course, at this rate, it’s going to be midnight before I get my dinner."

Anna giggled and shot Erin another questioning look—as if to ask if Seth had gone crazy. But she obediently headed off to her room to change clothes.

Erin went over to Seth and put a hand on his arm. “It’s a nice thought to go out. But I’m kind of tired—”

Seth frowned and murmured, “You wanted my help with that other matter, didn’t you?”

Erin immediately knew what he was talking about. “Oh.”

“This is part of my plan.”

“Oh.”

She was having some trouble thinking clearly, since it seemed like everything was happening at once. But she figured she better go change into something nicer, as Seth had suggested.

If Seth had a plan to address Anna’s insecurities, then things would happen fast.

Seth Thomas was an excellent strategist.

***

They went to one of the most exclusive restaurants in Atlanta, one that Anna had been to only a couple of times before. They still had their long-established “family night” at least once a week, and often they went out to eat for that now instead of playing games or watching movies. But they usually went to more casual, comfortable places.

Only for special occasions had the family gone to this particular restaurant. The last time they’d gone—almost two years ago—Anna had fallen in love with the chocolate peanut-butter torte, raving about it for weeks afterwards. So Erin was touched that Seth had remembered and had chosen this place to take Anna tonight.

Erin was already feeling better about Anna’s emotional state, especially at the sight of Anna’s pink cheeks and barely suppressed pleasure as they were shown to their table. The girl was trying hard to retain her characteristic snarkiness but Erin wasn’t fooled.

Anna was very happy about this unexpected outing.

As they took their seats, Anna quipped, “I thought we might have been going to Antonio’s.” Her tone was wry but she shot a quick, searching look at her father’s face.

Seth met her eyes blandly over his menu. “Antonio makes some decent pasta, but the ambiance is too forced and hackneyed for my taste.”

Anna clearly wasn’t convinced by his bored voice. “Right. I just thought you might want to spy on Mac so you could make sure Justin wasn’t groping her.”

Her blunt tone was clearly a challenge, and her choice of words made Seth’s eyes flicker with a glint of outraged protectiveness. But Seth had never caved to his daughters' strong wills—not when it was important—no matter how much he adored them and longed to make them happy.

His expression grew sober as he asked softly, “Do you really think I’d be as foolish as that?”

Erin actually held her breath as she waited for Anna’s response. It could easily be flip or disrespectful, since Seth’s question had left him open for it. But Erin desperately hoped Anna wouldn’t take advantage of the way Seth had made himself vulnerable.

Anna wasn’t even fifteen yet. But she had the power to hurt Seth—deeply.

Her eyelashes lowered. “No. I guess not.”

Erin let out her breath.

Then Anna’s eyes shifted back up to Seth’s face, and her mouth quirked a little with an irrepressible humor she’d gotten from Erin.

Seth’s mouth twitched in response. “That’s a relief.”

Erin chuckled—absurdly touched by this small moment of father-daughter bonding. Then the server came over to take their drink orders and the conversation became friendly and casual.

Erin asked Anna something about school and that was all she needed to get Anna to start talking. Anna held court all the while they were waiting for their dinners, blooming more and more from having the undivided attention of her parents even as she tried to maintain her wry, witty demeanor.

In a lot of ways, Anna was more knowledgeable, more responsible, and more mature than a lot of girls her age. She had a strong moral foundation and a wider range of perspectives and experiences.

But she’d also been deeply sheltered by the love and resources of her family. She wasn’t nearly as jaded or self-sufficient as Erin had been at her age.

And for some reason the recognition comforted Erin. Her girls were growing up, but they weren’t grown up yet. And Anna clearly still needed her parents as much as she always had.

She wanted to somehow share this reassurance with Seth—since she knew he needed it too. But when she glanced over to meet his eyes, she saw that he was frowning.

As their dinners arrived, Erin kept looking over at her husband. He was sustaining his part of the conversation, but his eyes kept straying to some spot between Erin and Anna’s chairs, and his frown got more and more obvious.

“Is something wrong, Seth?” Erin murmured, taking her first bite of shrimp.

Seth refocused on their conversation, although he appeared to be bristling inwardly. “No. Go on, Anna. You were saying you had to interview the chair of the school board for that story you were writing?”

“Yeah.” Anna glanced behind her, looking in confusion for what had preoccupied her father. “So I called him…”

She continued, telling her story in endless, enthusiastic detail. But, as she went on, Seth gradually got distracted again until he was glowering and stewing with obvious temper.

Anna’s voice kept trailing off as she lost her place in her story. She exchanged several confused looks with Erin until she finally asked, “What’s wrong, Dad?”

Seth’s jaw was clenched and his hand was fisted around his fork as he held up a forkful of grilled vegetables. “Nothing.”

Anna made an indignant sound at this blatant falsehood, and Erin reached over to put her hand on Seth’s tense arm. “Seth?”

Under the implied insistence of her soft voice, Seth finally relented. “I thought I might be able to enjoy a family dinner without some fuck—”

“Seth,” Erin interrupted in an automatic reproach. Obviously, Anna had heard language of that nature before—her aunt Liz had been a bad influence in that regard from the beginning—but Erin couldn’t seem to stop herself from an instinctive objection.

“Without some young asshole,” Seth corrected without missing a beat, gritting the words out through his teeth, “leering at my daughter.”

Erin’s eyes widened and Anna’s mouth dropped open slightly. The girl looked around the restaurant with a guileless disbelief that sent a pang of feeling through Erin’s chest.

Erin easily found the handsome young man Seth was glaring at so ruthlessly. He was dark-haired, well-built, and looked to be college-aged.

As far as Erin could tell, the young man had not been leering at Anna.

Since Anna’s back was to the young man, she was still looking around in bewilderment. Her cheeks were even pinker than they’d been earlier. “Who was?”

Seth ignored her question and aimed a merciless glare at his innocent target. “Just because she looks like she’s about twenty doesn’t give him the right to ogle my teenaged daughter.”

Anna had finally found the source of her father’s foul mood, and her pretty face twisted in pleased surprise as she saw he was attractive and at least five years older than she was. “He was? I think you’re getting paranoid, Dad. He doesn’t seem to have even noticed…” Her voice trailed off, and she turned quickly to face forward again as the young man caught her staring at him.

“I believe your father has effectively scared him off,” Erin murmured, trying desperately to keep a straight face as Seth continued to ham up his furious outrage and snarl under his breath.

If he kept it up, Anna would catch on. Children were often the most clueless about their own parents, but Anna had always been unusually observant. Erin aimed a discreet kick at Seth’s ankle but he’d already backed down to a low simmer.

“He wasn’t really looking at me,” Anna said, peering at Seth suspiciously. “Was he?”

Her voice cracked slightly on the last word—sounding so disbelieving and so hopeful at the same time that it nearly broke Erin’s heart.

“He better not be,” Seth muttered, sawing at his steak viciously. “At least Mackenzie just attracts boys her own age.”

Anna shot a look back at the table in question and appeared to be convinced by the young man’s obvious preoccupation with their table. While Erin thought he was probably just confused and disconcerted by Seth Thomas’s sudden, inexplicable antipathy toward him, she could see why Anna might take it as guilt at having been caught ogling her.

Anna gave Erin a helpless, questioning look.

Erin half-shrugged. “I told you,” she whispered with a smile.

Anna smiled back, looking flushed and flustered and so pretty Erin was surprised the whole restaurant wasn’t staring at her.

“Anyway,” Seth said, clearing his throat with one last malevolent look over Anna’s shoulder, “No need to let someone else’s poor behavior ruin our evening. You were talking about your story.”

“Right.” Anna took a sip of water and tried to concentrate on finishing her explanation. But her eyes kept slipping back toward the table Seth had drawn her attention to. After she finished eating, she excused herself to go the restroom.

Erin watched as her daughter made her way through the tables toward the back of the restaurant. Her hips were swaying more than usual as she walked past the young man, a fact that made Erin chuckle and feel a tender pang in her heart simultaneously.